1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to network systems.
2. Related Art
Network systems are commonly used to move network information (may also be referred to interchangeably, as frames, packets or commands) between computing systems (for example, servers) or between computing systems and network devices (for example, storage systems). A network device (may also be referred to as a network node) may operate both as receiving node and a transmitting node to receive and send network information.
Various industry standards, hardware and software components are typically used to implement network communication. InfiniBand (“IB”) is one such industry standard typically used with computing systems and input/output (I/O) devices. The IB standard is used to create fabrics, which may encompass numerous (for example thousands) of interconnected hosts/switches/servers, all working in parallel to solve complex problems.
In large IB fabrics, often independent computing applications operate concurrently. Per the IB standard, the applications may be separated from each other based on Partitions, using a partition key primarily as a security feature; and Quality of Service (QOS).
QOS may be implemented by using independent paths within a fabric for different applications. The IB standard supports such implementation by allowing one to assign virtual lanes (VLs) based on Service Levels (SLs). Multiple VLs may be used for a single network link. Each VL uses independent buffers and queues moving network information, However, the IB standard limits the number of VLs that can be used for a given link to 15 and the number of SLs within the fabric are also limited to 16.
In large fabrics that may include thousands of nodes, different applications may be assigned to different partitions. The partitions may share one or more switches and inter-switch links (ISLs). This creates the undesirable situation in which traffic from many independent partitions is distributed across 16 or fewer SLs. This can result in undesirable interaction between partitions, such as contention and intentional or unintentional denial of service attacks.